Umbria Camp is surrounded by the forest, but also by the park of Villa Montesca: the nineteenth-century residence of Barons Alice and Leopoldo Franchetti who transformed this part of the hill into a real botanical park.
Villa Montesca was built at the end of the 19th century by the will of the Barons Franchetti, the couple who gave life to numerous social, welfare and especially educational initiatives in favor of women and children. The “observation method” created by Baroness Alice Hallgarten Franchetti provided essential skills to become good custodians of the earth. The Baroness confronted both children's gardening by Lucy Latter and the pedagogical experience of Maria Montessori who in 1909 wrote the “Method” right here at Villa Montesca and followed the first course for the teachers of the rural schools of Montesca and Rovigliano.
“Two souls insatiable of good who through different paths always reached the same conclusion: the only good is to educate”
Alice Hallgarten and Leopoldo Franchetti with the birth of the two rural schools were the protagonists of a great revolution in the educational field. Convinced of the importance of a culture and education aimed at the emancipation of the poor classes, the rural schools of Villa Montesca and Rovigliano, intended for the children of peasants with classes up to the 6th level and free access, represented an absolute innovation both for their deep educational vitality and for their social impact. The focal point of their schools was the close relationship between school and the outside world, characterized by the system of observing nature and natural phenomena; the introduction of conversation as a method of mutual growth; the concept of environment and learning and community that educates.
The method of scientific pedagogy applied to infant education in the Children's Houses of Maria Montessori, dedicated to the Barons Franchetti, will be published in 1909 in Città di Castello. The same year, at Villa Montesca, the first course in scientific pedagogy was held.
From the idea of a culture and education aimed at the emancipation of the less affluent classes, the Textile Laboratory “Tela Umbra”, still active, was born in 1908. This project reflects the desire to ensure that women have the opportunity to work in a healthy environment alongside their children, for whom a kindergarten will be established in the halls of the same Palazzo Tomassini, already Bourbon del Monte. The realization of the Tela Umbra laboratory in fact had the objective of giving the possibility of social redemption to less wealthy women of the city and single mothers, who with the acquisition of a refined and professionalizing art managed to change for the better that social condition that marginalized them. In addition to the direct compensation, related to the work carried out, the weavers also participated in the distribution of the profits obtained from the sales.
